


soil and six feet under

by sayonide



Series: 3 rounds and a sound [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27461584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sayonide/pseuds/sayonide
Summary: The second she saw the details, Summer knew it would be a suicide mission. So she packed up her bags, hugged her family goodbye, and hoped that her life could save theirs.15 years later, she watches as Ruby does the same.
Series: 3 rounds and a sound [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002933
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	soil and six feet under

**Author's Note:**

> had a dream where i tried to add a new chapter to smth and deleted all my works

It was so clearly a suicide mission, right from the start. Summer took one look at the specifics, put down her Scroll, and walked into the living room to gather Ruby and Yang in her arms. 

"I love you," she says, pulling their attention from their cartoon for a bit.

Ruby, too little to understand what's really happening, just hugs her back tightly before her attention is drawn back to the television. Yang's much more observant, but even so, she's only 5. 5 and 1/4, if you ask her, but regardless, she can still be distracted by a funny animation, so she says a simple "love you too, mama," before she's letting go of Summer again and turning back to the show.

The next day, she packs up and leaves. They send her off, Tai wishing her good luck, and Ruby grips her cape.

"Mama? Leave forever?" She asks, and Summer shoves down the tears that spring up almost automatically. 

"No, Ruby," she lies. "I come back every other time, don't I?"

Still, she's not convinced, and Summer wonders if she has some kind of bullshit detector. Or a death detector.

"...Promise?" She's pulling Summer's cape back now, unwilling to let her go.

"It's fine, Ruby!" Yang's interjecting, reaching over for Ruby's hood. "She's _supermom._ Nothing can keep her away! We'll see her in a few weeks like always."

Summer uses the confidence that Yang has, silently sending her an apology, and gently untangles Ruby's hand from her cape. "I promise. I'll be back as always."

Ruby lets herself be pried off, but the hard frown doesn't leave her face. Still, there's no time, so Summer bends down to give the both of them a last hug.

"I love you both so much," she says, "please don't forget that."

* * *

_This is it_ , she thinks, staring out the window of the airship. She closes her eyes, and hopes like hell that the girls know she's sorry.

* * *

Summer Rose steps into Salem's territory on a Monday. Time doesn't quite work the same here; her Scroll says it's nearing 10:00 in Patch when the airship stops. Ruby's probably watching TV, or babbling circles around her dad. Yang's at school. 

She takes a breath, drops the Scroll, and jumps out. 

Salem's taller than expected, that's the first thing she notices. Not just taller, either. Bigger than any human should be expected to grow, even with immortality behind her, and she wonders if it's because of the Grimm inside of her. If maybe that's the clue to defeating her. 

The immortal turns around to face her, and a pleasant smile breaks out across her face. One that's enough to make her recoil and force down a shudder of disgust. 

For the girls, she reminds herself. For the children that they'll grow up with, so that none of them ever have to be in this position, facing down someone destined to never die.

"Summer Rose. Welcome," Salem announces, spreading her arms and her stupid black cloak. "I've been waiting for you. Where are the girls? Still at home?" It makes her freeze on the spot. Salem knows her. Salem knows her daughters. 

Every bit of control and planning she had drains, and she only barely manages to keep herself from leaping at Salem in an attempt to keep them safe. Mother's instincts. Instead, she takes a breath and tells Salem, "You won't get away with this."

Salem laughs, low, and bends to her level. "And what, exactly, are you planning to do about that?"

She glares up, bringing the image of her team to her mind, the girls, the kids at the school that Yang goes to, and she pressed her eyes closed as if to contain and build it up. It wouldn't do to shoot at her, over and over. Every time Summer used her silver eyes, she got a little more tired, and the light grew a little weaker. No, she needs to push out all the power at once. 

So she waited, and waited, and pushed out all the noise outside - the popping of the pools of Grimm, Salem's low chuckling, the skittering outside of whatever she didn't want to know existed. And when it built up to a headache, the light pulsing behind her eyes, she opened them as wide as she could and stared directly at Salem.

The brightness burned, brighter than it ever had before. Her world went white. She stumbled afterwards, overwhelmed with how much it had taken out of her, and right before collapsing, she heard that same low chuckling, accompanied by the screeching of some kind of monkey. 

"Oh, dear," Salem croons. "You didn't really think that would work, did you?"

* * *

Maybe it's not like growing up next to them, but she knows. Summer sees as her kids grow up, as Yang finds out about Raven, and begs them as best she can to reconsider as they both enter combat schools. She sees their anger, Yang's especially, and hopes like hell that they can move on before everything overwhelms them. She watches them as they get into Beacon, training long and hard, and as Ruby finds out about the power that she was unfortunate enough to have inherited. 

She screams into the void as the world falls apart, and sees Ruby get up again, knowing that she has to keep going but still begging her to turn back. To watch her sister recover and live a quiet life in Patch like she'd always wanted them to. 

"You won't get away with this," Ruby threatens, and Salem laughs. That same, low, chuckling, and she reclines in her throne.

"You can try," She responds. "You'll get about as far as your mother."

Unlike the first time, though, Ruby just clenches her fists tighter. Weaponless, bruised, scratched up, and far too low on aura to risk healing, she shuts her eyes tight, and Summer can't watch. It's too much, seeing her destroy herself the same way that Summer had done nearly 15 years earlier. 

But... There's no laughing. No screeching of monkey-Grimm, no words from Salem's arrogant self.

Summer breezes through to check, and she sees nothing before she notices what's happening.

A red cape on the ground.

Pools of Grimm, dripping down and burning into the floor.

An empty throne.

And outside, screaming. Ruby's team, begging her to let them in, swearing at her for leaving them behind so abruptly. Summer watches, helplessly, as they finally break into the room and see the room. Watches as they run through, calling out Ruby's name, as if still in denial despite the proof laying tattered on the ground.

A hand slips into hers, and Summer turns her gaze to meet identical silver ones.

"Do they know?" Ruby asks, so much older than she was when she had begged her to not leave, only three years old, but no less her daughter. "That I'm sorry? Because I didn't mean to leave them like that, and I hope that they know."

Summer smiles down at her, and squeezes her hand. "Did you know that I was?" And Ruby considers it for a moment before beaming up at her. 

"Yeah. I think that's what kept me going. Knowing that you loved us 'til the end."

She breezes Ruby through, away from where they both died. 

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," She starts, and Ruby shakes her head.

"It's alright," She says. "I know you were protecting us. And I'm glad I got to know you as long as I did."

**Author's Note:**

> go stretch. loosen yourself up. unclench ur muscles.
> 
> this is called i may be learning how to tag but i don't know how to end things
> 
> on second thought i have not learnt how to tag


End file.
